Monday, April 23, 2007

Because It's All About the Bottom Line

From this morning's New York Times:

Healing has been hastened in part by a spike in school spirit.

At the Campus Emporium on North Main Street here, workers struggled to handle the backlog of 400 orders for Virginia Tech coffee mugs, footballs, teddy bears, clothing and other gear. On campus, the University Bookstore sold a season’s supply of VT lapel pins in two days last week.

The chants, banners and slogans typically associated with Virginia Tech sports have gained a more emotional currency. At a convocation the day after the shootings, the rousing student chants filled Cassell Coliseum. The nickname for the university’s athletic teams, Hokies, has become a kind of shorthand for a unity that many students said they felt. “After what happened, we chanted, and at that moment, I really felt like I’m a Hokie,” said Ingrid Ngai, 19, a native of Hong Kong.

When I was there, Hokies was only the secondary sports team name, sort of like UVa has Wahoos as a secondary name to Cavaliers (or maybe it's the other way around.) The main sports team name was Fighting Gobblers. Supposedly this name had originated back in the day because the football players gobbled their food in the cadet dining hall. Right. But despite that, they had a long-necked turkey mascot complete with wattle who would run around on the sidelines at football and basketball games. And after Tech touchdowns, they would play this weird "gobble gobble" turkey sound over the loudspeakers. Now I think they've turned the turkey mascot into a shorter, fatter generic "Hokie Bird" and I doubt they still play the turkey sound after touchdowns.

"After what happened, we chanted, and at that moment, I really felt like I'm a Turkey."

Orange and maroon were still the rather incongruous colors when I was there, though. I lived in the dorm that was closest to the football stadium, and it was always a bizarre sight on game days to see these alumni walking around in their orange blazers and maroon pants (or maybe it was the other way around) and orange and maroon SADDLE SHOES. I know if I ever put that get-up on, I surely would feel like a turkey, even before I chanted.